D-backs manager Torey Lovullo wants ‘to be wanted’ with future up in air

SAN DIEGO (AP) — Diamondbacks manager Torey Lovullo acknowledged he is uncertain about his future with the club after Arizona barely missed the playoffs yet again on the final day of the regular season.

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“I want to win a world championship with this organization, but I want to be wanted,” Lovullo said Sunday after the Diamondbacks officially missed the postseason for the eighth time in nine years.

Lovullo, who was an MLB infielder from 1988-99 including in 1994 with the Seattle Mariners, is the winningest manager in Diamondbacks history, going 750-768 during a full decade in charge — but he finished this season on a one-year contract.

When asked if he would consider returning on another short-term deal, Lovullo replied: “I don’t know. I just want to be wanted. I’ll leave it at that. It’s hard to say. It’s probably not the conversation to have right now. I need to think about a few things.”

Lovullo was visibly emotional in the visitors’ clubhouse at Petco Park after his team finished 86-76 with two weekend losses to the playoff-bound San Diego Padres. If Arizona had won those two games, it would have edged Philadelphia for the NL’s final wild-card berth.

Lovullo’s team has posted five winning records in the past nine years since he led the D-backs to 93 wins and the division series as a rookie NL Manager of the Year in 2017, but their improbable run to the NL pennant and the 2023 World Series remains their only postseason appearance in that stretch.

When asked if he wanted to return next season, Lovullo replied: “Of course I do. Arizona is my home. I love Arizona, and the people and the fans are spectacular. The group that I work for is amazing. I love being around them every single day, and I don’t want that to change.”

This latest narrow playoff miss was particularly excruciating. After losing 10-7 to San Diego on Saturday night, the Diamondbacks needed to win Sunday and needed the Phillies to lose in order to claim the final wild-card playoff berth.

But the Diamondbacks could see on the Petco scoreboard that Philadelphia led the Tampa Bay Rays 4-0 even before Arizona got on the field. The Phillies weren’t seriously threatened on their way to the clinching victory, which ended moments before the Diamondbacks fell behind the Padres for the final time.

“I kept glancing at it to see, and it was painful,” Lovullo said. “It was agonizing to watch — one out, two outs, and then the board flashed ‘Final.’ So I’ll never forget that feeling. … It’s hard to describe what I felt, but I probably felt sadness and a little emptiness that was something I’ll never forget. It’ll be tough to recover.”

The players were all aware of the Phillies’ win when Lovullo made a late-inning pitching change, and Lovullo comforted his infielders on the mound with words and hugs.

“We fought as hard as we could, and we have nothing to be ashamed of,” Lovullo said. “I saw a lot of long faces in (the clubhouse), heads down, but I wanted to make sure that I acknowledged what they did this year. It was a really special group. We played hard for every inning of every game, and we came up one game short, a couple games short, and it’s happened in the past. We come close, and we’ve got to find a way to turn that corner and start to win baseball games.”

Lovullo was hired as Arizona’s manager four weeks after general manager Mike Hazen took over the club, and their tenures are still intertwined. Their Diamondbacks have had the misfortune to be in the NL West with the sport-dominating Los Angeles Dodgers, who have won 13 of the last 14 division titles — and with the Padres, who have made the postseason in five of the past seven years during the best stretch in franchise history.

But Arizona also hasn’t been able to snare a wild-card berth despite rosters full of veteran talent and a solid young core, repeatedly falling just short at big moments.

Diamondbacks president Derrick Hall recently said he thinks Lovullo likely did the best managing job of his career this season while Arizona struggled with major injuries and distractions that included the latest bizarre absence of star Ketel Marte. But Lovullo also acknowledged earlier this month that he thought his team probably needed to make the playoffs for him and his coaching staff to return next season.

Lovullo said he has been trying not to think about his future while he led the Diamondbacks on another September quest that ultimately fell short.

“I probably compartmentalize it, push it aside, and just told myself to be present for these guys and be available,” Lovullo said. “My status should be minimized inside of that clubhouse. When it’s time to get to it, it’ll happen. But to this point, I don’t know where it’s at. I have some decisions to make. I have some things to think about, as do the D-backs, and where it goes from here, I don’t know.”

Seattle Sports staff made minor additions to this post.

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